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Are Your Succulents Stretching Out Abnormally?

Do you have a problem with your succulents stretching out abnormally? This happens when the plant is not getting enough light. The succulent is either too far away from a good light source or it is not getting the light long enough each day. It is usually a simple thing to move the succulent to a better spot. The elongated succulent plant will never go back however. You will need to trim an etiolated succulent or propagate it into a new plant.

The following video show ways to trim succulents that are abnormally stretching out.

[Transcript] Hi my name is Mary Ellen and welcome to Moody Blooms. . So, today I purchased a couple of succulents from a local nursery a little crazy a little overgrown. So, what I’m going to do is teach you how to make several plants out of overgrown plants that you buy from the nursery.

Succulents Stretching Out Abnormally

I love this this succulent it’s beautiful and it’s really easy to propagate. So, what I first start doing is cutting off the really leggy pieces right here. So, I cut down where I want the new piece to grow. So, a couple things I can cut off right here where I will plant this into the soil and it’ll actually grow a new plant this also can be planted as well. You want to make sure you dry these out for a couple days. That way they can callous over and then stick them in some soil and water them.

So, a couple other things here we have this leggy piece right here which is kind of crazy. So, what I normally do on these is I cut off cut right here. That way I can plant this in and then this piece right here probably propagate a couple of these bottom leaves. And then I can also stick this in some soil and a new plant will grow as well.

I’ll cut back this too and then there’s another leggy piece right here you can see right here where it’s getting kind of long. We want him to stand up and grow nice beautiful plants. So, this one actually is gonna be two plants I’m gonna cut off this right here where it meets the other one and a new plant should actually grow there as well.

And then I like to try straightening out the bottom of the stem. It goes in the soil a little bit better and then hopefully something goes out of there. You’ll also see sometimes though they’ll have leaves that fall in and will have little babies already on them growing. And as you can see right here there’s some little babies growing in there as well. And then because this one still has a lot of babies in the bottom I’m gonna be had this large flower right here beautiful nice and healthy.

So, I can take these off gently propagate these leaves and watch my propagation video on that. So, just enough. So, that it has room to get into the soil and root. Sometimes I put a rooting hormone in there a growth hormone. Sometimes they don’t look beautiful and then what I’ll do is like I’ll cut back any of these like long leggy pieces they’re just kind of sticking out. I’ll cut them up straight that way a new flower can grow in the good direction.

You can also stick this piece in soil as well there that’s why succulents are so amazing because they are just the gift that keeps on giving. So, this one was just sitting in here which means it probably broke off at some point. So, this is probably already calloused over. So, I probably could just set that in soil some of these leaves right here kind of will rot I won’t propagate the wilty ones.

We want a healthy leaf that we can propagate but that’s another nice little plant. So, then. So, far how posh this wasn’t even in the soil either. So, this one I could either plant back into the soil in here once I clean it up a little bit and get some better soil in there.

Trim Succulents that Stretch Out Abnormally

But either way I could put it back in here into a nice little plant and this little pot just as is take it out and put in some better soil and this will all grow and flourish or I could even cut some of these other pieces off. But look right here I have all these other plants that I can get from this one. [… ]

I have all these other plants that I can now pot and then I have all these leaves that I can propagate later. So, let’s go on to the next plant.

So, this one right here is really great really overgrown kind of crazy-looking and you want to make sure there’s a nice healthy flower at the top. So, this right here has a nice little top. So, what I’ll do is I’ll take off a couple of these leaves I can propagate just this top. So, this little piece I’ll put in soil it’ll grow after it’s callused over for a few days. Even this little stem can be put in to propagate.

And then a lot of times you’ll see when you buy these plants there’ll be little babies that I’ve already started they’ve already propagating themselves. So, the leaf will fall off in a new little see that cute little baby in there and the lead the stent the roots. So, I’ll go ahead and put this in some soil as well a couple of their babies.

If they’re pretty attached I just leave them in there just cuz they’re already doing okay um if I can get him out, then I will. Then there’s like a ton of leaves on here that have fallen off. So, one of them has a little baby on it. So, I’ll just put that in some soil but I’m also gonna cut back these large kinds of crazy ones. So, I’m gonna cut it back where I want the new flower to grow just kind of in the center of the plant and then all of these can be cut off take off these bottom leaves let them dry out for a few days.

Propagate Leaves from Etiolated Succulents

Depending on the type of plant it is stick that in soil a new plant will grow same thing on this one as well. So, we can propagate all these leaves on the bottom and cut off this piece stick this in soil once this bottom is calloused over and then plant this one as well. So, several plants that we’re gonna get from these as well. So, this one that’s coming off to the side I’m gonna cut that off and hopefully we’ll have a new growth out of that little end right there as well.

So, I’m gonna cut off here I’ll put this in soil cut off here probably here probably get these leaves which I’ll show you how to do in another video. You could check on the moody blooms YouTube channel this one’s great cut it off here perfect. So, again we have all these other little plants that we can now plant from this one overgrown crazy plant. So, we’ll cut back this one a little bit too.

So, so here’s another plant that I purchased that’s super overgrown and we’re gonna cut this back and propagate these. So, I’m gonna cut off right here where I want the new piece to grow. So, this huge stem I’m going to do two things I’m gonna take off some of the leaves in the middle where I want the end of the top plant to be. I’m gonna take off these bottom leaves plant that in soil after it’s dry it out for a couple of days.

Same thing on this. Just way too leggy cut it back right where you want the new plant to grow in. And then this one we can either plant at the bottom. Cut it off at here probably take off some of the bottom of these leaves I’m gonna let that dry out probably cut up should I probably make this into two different plants.

But this one just kind of stuck in there. Same thing we’ll cut off this right here we’ll cut off right here at the end and a new plant should actually grow right out of there. So, let’s cut it off just above that point. So, hopefully we have something some new growth out of the top and the side. We’ll see and then take off a couple leaves to propagate this plant. This one probably go up a little bit higher and then there’s a couple more that we’ll do that on.

And there’s all these little babies that are already sprouting here. Some other little leaves that have already propagated perfect. Sorry you go and then we’ll cut back here as well and then here I know it kind of looks like I’ve devastated this plant, but we’ll have. So, we’ll have new growth.

And all these extra little leaves that have fallen off and a lot of times there’s other little babies in there. Sometimes there’s even different plants that have grown in there from being next to all these have little babies growing on them. There’s a pretty good size already put that in some soil a whole another little plant as well.

So, yes out of this one plant we have this main plant. I’ll cut that off eventually too. But then we have all these other plants that we can lance. Oh so, many. So, for this one [… ] give all these plants. Great do the same thing on this bottom line. Propagate this one great cute little plant nice and healthy. You have any questions please let me know. Anything you want to see. Thank you for joining us on moody blooms have a great day. [End of transcript]

Our Summary: Sometimes it is possible to trim back the etiolated succulent that has stretched out abnormally. Other times your best chance is to propagate the elongated, leggy succulent into a new plant. Then make sure it gets enough sunlight.